Pictures from Around the World

Pictures from Around the World

VIKTOR DRACHEV / AFP/Getty Images

A Belarus Interior Ministry special forces soldier demonstrates his ability to sustain a blow during a competition to mark the Defenders of the Fatherland Day at their training centre outside Minsk, on February 23, 2014. Belarus alongside Russia and other countries of the former USSR celebrates the Soviet holiday on February 23 each year. Following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the holiday was given its current name in 2002 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A Belarus Interior Ministry special forces soldier demonstrates his ability to sustain a blow during a competition to mark the Defenders of the Fatherland Day at their training centre outside Minsk, on February 23, 2014. Belarus alongside Russia and other countries of the former USSR celebrates the Soviet holiday on February 23 each year. Following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the holiday was given its current name in 2002 by Russian President Vladimir Putin. (VIKTOR DRACHEV / AFP/Getty Images)

A Belarus Interior Ministry special forces soldier demonstrates his ability to sustain a blow during a competition to mark the Defenders of the Fatherland Day at their training centre outside Minsk, on February 23, 2014. Belarus alongside Russia and other countries of the former USSR celebrates the Soviet holiday on February 23 each year. Following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the holiday was given its current name in 2002 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.